Wednesday, October 30, 2013

It's time someone said something good about healthcare.gov, so here it is: I like it. I like it a lot.

I needed to shop healthcare.gov today because my employer-subsidized health insurance deduction is going up $8 per paycheck in November. It seemed prudent to find out if the Affordable Care Act, which I wholeheartedly support, could give me a better deal.

It can't.

(But that doesn't mean it's not awesome. It just means I am lucky enough and have income enough and job enough to get my healthcare without government assistance. I will never complain about that. I currently don't need food stamps or medicaid or Meals on Wheels. That doesn't make those things a bad idea.)

Here's what I came to report: I went to healthcare.gov this morning and within three minutes - not exaggerating - I had six health coverage plans on my computer screen to choose from. I was not knocked off the site, I was not confused about anything, I was not thrown down a rabbit hole of darkness and dysfunction that I should believe exists if I'm listening to dramatic media reports.

The site works. Even here in the bass-ackward state of Texas. Additional note: I've had endless reasons to shop online over the last month and I haven't found a single shopping/product review website easier to navigate than healthcare.gov. But - let's be honest - no one in Congress is trying to keep me discouraged about spending wads of money on kitchen appliances. Right? So who's going to rag on goedeckers.com?

Here's what else I should report: For people living at or below poverty level - this law is a literal godsend. For the purpose of research (there is a member of my family who might benefit from this research), I went to the Kaiser Family Foundation's website (no relation to health insurance Kaiser, by the way) for help calculating potential subsidies and discounts provided in the Affordable Care Act. What I found out is this: a health plan currently costing a member of my family $144 a month might start costing $20 a month in January.

And if that's not viewed as a good thing, you are simply too rich to care.

Is that the problem here? Are the naysayers and Obamacare haters and wolf-criers on Capitol Hill all simply too rich to care? Because I'm telling you...affordable healthcare for all people makes us a kinder, gentler, healthier, more enlightened and imminently more compassionate society.